Page 49 of Just Curious

“I’m by the golf course now, but there still isn’t any place I can see that’s good to pull over unless I want to land in a ditch. The road’s too narrow here. Maybe I can stop at the polo grounds or the Tack and Feed store. They have a parking lot there. I just hope I don’t hit anyone getting into it. Oh, it’s so hot again, and I can barely see through the windshield.”

“Yeah, okay. Try slowing down enough to get into the parking lot. Good thinking. Stay calm.” Jackson felt like a blithering idiot saying that. Willa had to be terrified. He was terrified for her. He felt a comforting hand reach behind him and massage his tense back as he sat hunched over. Miles had always been a great brother.

Willa looked at the radio volume readout and hollered at it, “Oh,shut up! Sorry, not you, Jackson! I’m just so sick of this noise; I was yelling at the car.”

“I understand. Are you close to the parking lot now?”

“Almost. It’s up ahead… but… oh no! The car is speeding up! I can’t slow it down, Jackson. Help! It won’t let me do anything.” Willa sounded close to tears.

Chapter 30

Across town, in Pasadena, Ryker sat in front of his computer laughing his ass off. He’d waited for what felt like an eternity for Jackson to take that stupid, expensive car of his out for a spin. Finally, the jerk was driving it, and Ryker felt omnipotent. This wasfun.

Hearing Ryker’s distinctive laughter, Deb went to investigate the cause. Ryker was beside himself, slapping his leg in glee. Stomping into the room, Deb asked, “What the hell?” She didn’t like being left out of the joke and hoped it didn’t have anything to do with her.

Ryker’s attention shifted from his computer screen to Deb’s pissed-off expression. He pointed to a bunch of lines of numbers and letters on his computer screen that meant absolutely nothing to her and declared, “I’m just having a little fun with Mr. High and Mighty who thinks he’s so damn smart. That’ll teach him to block my DEF CON attacks now. He who laughs last laughs best, ya know?”

“Ryker! Aren’t we in enough trouble? Why are you trying to make things worse?”

Glaring at her, Ryker growled, “I’m just messing around—just a harmless prank. No one will ever know this was from me anyway. I’m completely protected.” He thought so, anyway. Realizing he hadn’t done anything for a minute, he looked at the screen and realized that Jackson had managed to slow the car down a little.Well, that’s no good! Take this, you big know-it-all!Ryker sped the car back up again and drove it forward as fast as it would go. Since a Tesla Model S Performance can make it up to sixty miles-per-hour in just over two seconds, the lurch was impressive.

Cackling like a crazy man, Ryker said, “I think it’s about time for Mr. Big-Brains Mitchell to have a fun little drive on the freeway. Five is just ahead, so let’s see just what this jalopy of his will do in Ludicrous mode.”

Playing with the car like a video game, Ryker zoomed the Tesla onto Interstate Five and wove it in and out of already swiftly moving traffic. He laughed and laughed as he imagined what his unsuspecting passenger must be feeling. “Not so much fun when someone else takes over control, is it, asshole?” he shouted at the computer screen.

“I’m not so sure this is a good idea, Ryker,” Deb whined at him. “What if a highway patrolman tries to pull him over?”

“There isn’t a cruiser on the freeway that can catch up to him! Don’t be such a dolt.” Suddenly feeling like trying something else, Ryker cut the car’s speed and decided to take it off the freeway and head toward the coast and Torrey Pines Road. He vaguely remembered it from when he’d driven down there for a convention once, but all he knew for sure was that there was some annual tournament at the Torrey Pines Golf Course.

What Ryker’s map didn’t show him was elevation, and he forgot that in this area, Torrey Pines Road had a long up-hill climb.

The upward slope didn’t bother the Tesla, though. And he gleefully accelerated the car up to one hundred twenty miles-per-hour before he lost interest in this game. He knew it could go way faster than that, but it was more fun to goof around with the controls, he decided. For a while he started and stopped the car at random interludes, making it jerk and lurch. “This is probably a great workout for your brakes, isn’t it?” he asked. He had a crude aerial view of the terrain and knew where the car was by tracking its progress. To Ryker, the car looked like a green dot on his computer screen.

Up ahead of the car, he could see a large open area on the map and decided to do a little off-roading for some extra grins. He zoomed way in on the map and saw that there was a stretch of what looked like road through the middle of an area that was oddly devoid of trees and bushes.A big parking lot, maybe? The map showed the name Black’s Beach along the coast there.Oh, yeah… I think that’s the nude beach I’ve heard of. Cool! This’ll be fun.It looked to him like a perfect area for some tricks, and maybe he could shake up some nudists at the same time. The thought made him giggle.

Chapter 31

As Willa struggled to control the Tesla, Jackson and Miles decided the best thing they could do was take Miles’ rental car and get the heck down there as soon as possible.

Jackson called Casey.

Fighting to keep his voice calm, Jackson announced, “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, but we have an emergency situation, Case. I’m sending the driver back to you, and you need to get back home as soon as possible.”

“What is it?”

“Willa took the Tesla, and it’s gone rogue on her. She’s terrified, and I’m worried that a certain someone might have hacked the car somehow. She’s been careening all over the place, and now she’s on her way into La Jolla via Torrey Pines Road. Since that’s not how she’d normally get to where she’s going, I suspect some serious foul play.”

“What the fuck?” was all Casey could say.

“I don’t know, but I’m calling the police and I’m tracking the car. I’ve tried to override the controls and slow her down so she can get out somewhere, but so far that’s been impossible. Miles and I are heading out right this minute, and I suggest you do too. No matter what happens, she’s going to need us, Case.”

“I’m on my way—or I will be as soon as I see the driver. Keep me posted, yeah?”

“You bet. And Case?”

“Huh?”

“If you’ve ever been a praying kind of guy, this is the time to do it. Hopefully this is just a sick prank, and the person controlling the car will cut it out when he gets tired of the game. I just hope we can get to her before anything worse happens. See you soon.”

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